


one for you, one for me, and one for us

by thestarsspokehername



Series: everyone loves hinata! [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aone is a shy baby, Aone knows JSL because I said so, Based off that one story about three touches meaning "I love you", Futakuchi is a wingman, Hinata is an idiot, M/M, Oblivious Hinata Shouyou, Tired Futakuchi Kenji
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:15:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23745175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thestarsspokehername/pseuds/thestarsspokehername
Summary: Aone always gives Hinata’s hand three squeezes, or his head three taps, or his shoulder three nudges. Hinata has no idea what it means, and he also has no idea why Aone always looks so defeated after he does it.
Relationships: Aone Takanobu/Hinata Shouyou
Series: everyone loves hinata! [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1894936
Comments: 17
Kudos: 577
Collections: Haikyuu!!





	one for you, one for me, and one for us

**Author's Note:**

> Aone/Hinata has so much potential, yet it's so underrated! I just love them and their friendship so much.
> 
> This idea comes from that one Tumblr story about how a woman's husband was bad at expressing his love verbally and instead did it with three squeezes/taps/etc. It reminded me of Aone and Hinata, so I decided to write something about it!

Aone always gave Hinata’s hands three squeezes, or his head three taps, or his shoulder three nudges. Hinata had no idea what it meant, and he also had no idea why Aone looked so defeated after he did it.

To be fair, he hadn’t even realized the pattern of Aone giving him three physical touches until one of their practice matches, when the white giant had nudged his shoulder three times during a water break. The force of each had almost sent him toppling over all three times, barely catching himself on the wall of the gym. He remembered the worry that had crossed over Aone’s face, a usual break from his normal stoic expression, but it quickly disappeared with a bubbly laugh from the younger and reassurances that he had survived much, much worse. 

Yet, even with his reassurances, it didn’t stop Aone from raising his hands and quickly signing to him;  _ You may be alright, but I’ve almost knocked you over from doing that a lot of times. I’ll be more careful from now on.  _ Hinata had looked at him absolutely dumbfounded for a moment; what did he mean by “a lot of times”? If anything, Aone was always careful to avoid bumping into people, even doing his best to hold back when invited for chest bumps or high fives. Maybe he had read his signing wrong? He was still new to it, after all.

But the way Aone stared at him, patiently awaiting his answer, told him that he wasn’t wrong.

“Whaddya mean, Aone-san? This is the first time you’ve done this- I think!”  


Another laugh bubbled out of his throat, glancing back up at Aone and waiting to see the realization on his face that he was just overreacting, waiting to see his face relax, waiting to see something other than the absolutely  _ defeated  _ look in his eyes. Hinata's laughter trailed away as Aone stiffly turned and set down his water bottle, walking back over to the rest of his team. 

Hinata opened his mouth to call for him, but the shrill cry of Coach Ukai’s whistle interrupted any call he could’ve made. Everyone was setting down their water bottles, flinging towels off to the side, readjusting sneakers and knee pads; they still had a game to play. As Hinata jogged back to his position on the court, his gaze flickered to Aone. Any sign of their previous conversation was gone from his face, eyes calm and composed, body tense, awaiting any move Karasuno may make. 

He didn’t get an answer that day or anytime close after that. All he got was the question he had to find the answer to. 

___   


For possibly the first time since before Hinata saw the Little Giant play on TV, something besides volleyball was occupying his head at all times of the day.

Since their practice match against Dateko, Hinata had made a conscious effort to pay attention to Aone and his actions and after a month and a half, he had discovered his pattern. It was always when they were parting ways from hanging out, never during or as a greeting, but Aone would give him three physical touches. The only exception seemed to be practice matches, where both teams typically left before the other’s could say goodbye due to having to clean up.

The first time he realized this was after they had seen a highly anticipated action movie and Hinata was blabbering away on the train ride home, bouncing on his heels and making exasperated hand motions and sounds as he waited for his stop. The white giant, as usual, was rather silent, only nodding along and giving small hums in agreement every few words. The stop had arrived all too suddenly for Hinata, but what really tore his mind out of its excited haze were the three gentle pats to the top of his head. 

He had looked up at his friend with confusion evident on his face, tilting his head to the side as the doors opened and people began spilling out. Aone had stared down at him, an unknown fondness in his eyes that faded into that old defeated look when he realized Hinata wasn’t saying anything. He cleared his throat and gestured to the doors, which were about to close, and Hinata had no time to contemplate the meaning behind that strange look in Aone’s eyes before he had to rush out through the doors, barely making it before they slid shut behind him. 

That was the first of many strange goodbyes between the two, at least, the first that Hinata could remember. It wasn’t always three taps to his head, he discovered that after Hinata had slipped his hand into Aone’s when walking home from the park and felt three warm squeezes, or when their jogging paths had overlapped and Aone gave him three gentle nudges to his shoulder again, this time holding back on almost all of his strength.

Each time, Hinata had awaited an explanation for what they meant, a quizzical look on his face, and each time, that same defeated look overtook his face. Hinata was starting to hate that look; he didn’t want any of his friends to feel bad, of course, but seeing such an expression on Aone was pulling at some particular heartstrings. He had no idea how to fix it, how to make him feel better, he didn’t even know what was  _ causing  _ it. He dreaded seeing that look appear because there was absolutely nothing he could do and he knew that. 

Luckily for him, there was someone who did know what to do. 

  
  


___

  
  


After five months of pondering, hanging out with Aone, and being tormented by that damned look, the Gods must have taken pity on poor Hinata and sent some help in the form of a very tired team captain.

  
When Futakuchi became captain after the third years retired, he had expected the usual things. Assisting in setting up practice matches, making sure the club room was open and closed on time, ensuring the gym was cleaned after each use. He did  _ not  _ think he’d have to become the matchmaker between the dense idiot on Karasuno’s team and the shy idiot on his own, but he was tired of watching Aone make goo-goo eyes at Karasuno #10 when he thought nobody was looking or having to hear Daichi ask for help in the  captain’s chat because Hinata had been questioning what the number three could mean, yet refusing to give any context when pushed for it.

So, when the chance to put an end to it appeared, he took it.

  
  


___

  
  


“Hinata!”

Hinata perked up at the call of his name, just in time to watch the Dateko captain jog over to right in front of him. It was the end of yet another practice match between the two teams, and Karasuno had stayed behind to help clean up after Nishinoya had collided with all the water bottles and made a mess over the floor, which had put an end to their game. Futakuchi had a smile plastered on his face and at first, Hinata had to glance around to make sure he wasn’t talking to some other Hinata, before finally pointing at himself just to make sure.

“Yes,  _ you.  _ I recently read an...erm, interesting article that I thought you’d like to hear about!”

“Eh?”

Futakuchi bit his lip to resist the urge to scream at the dumbfounded look that appeared on the first year’s face, reminding himself that he was doing this for Aone’s sake, he was beating around the bush Aone’s sake, he was doing this to spare Aone any embarrassment,  _ for Aone’s sake. _

“Yeah! It was a really good read, talked about how some parents would teach their kids that three physical touches, like squeezes to the hand or pats to the back, can mean “I love you”....”

Absolutely nothing from Hinata when he glanced back down. No sign in his eyes that he had an amazing revelation, no excited bouncing, nothing. ‘ _ Just how thick is this kid’s skull!?’ _

So, he continued.

“Y’know, because some kids aren’t that good at expressing themselves verbally and sometimes, the more discreet, the better…”

Still nothing. He felt ready to scream and, by the way Suguwara inched ever so closer, it must’ve been showing.

“Come on, I think it’s really interesting! Because those kids could grow up into shy  _ teenagers  _ that still prefer using their  _ actions  _ instead of their words to express themselves, and they could possibly forget sometimes that not  _ everyone  _ understands what three physical touches would mean, and get sad,  _ you know? _ ”

For a moment, nothing happened, and Futakuchi was about ready to call it quits and just buy Aone some food before breaking it to him that he should’ve picked someone smarter to crush on. Luckily, Hinata’s eyes lit up like lights on Christmas, and something told him that he could hold off on that discussion.

“That's nice, Futakuchi-san! Se-send me the link to that, excuse me,  _ Aone-san!” _

Hinata wasted no time in sprinting across the gym full speed at Aone, who turned to him with a slow blink before almost dropping the chairs he was holding in surprise. Hinata skidded to a stop in front of him, staring up at him with a determined look in his eyes before holding out his hand.

“Give me your hand!”

He exclaimed, eyes still shining and body practically vibrating from excitement. Aone carefully set down one of the chairs and, as soon as he did, his hand was grabbed by the orangette. He was rather taken aback; sure, Hinata was a huge extrovert and was usually comparable to an overexcited puppy who didn’t know how to control himself, but this was a bit much, even for him. He was so lost in Hinata’s strange actions that he almost didn’t feel the three squeezes to his hand.

Aone snapped out of his thoughts, staring at Hinata with wide eyes to make sure he had actually felt it, not just imagining it because he was getting  _ that  _ desperate to actually feel it. Staring into his eyes, Hinata merely grinned and did it again, taking a step forward into Aone’s personal space as he did. Both those actions were enough to make Aone’s face flush a deep crimson, eyes darting around the gym before looking back to Hinata.

Slowly, he squeezed back. 

One, two, three.

_ I love you.  _

Some pink dusted Hinata’s face at that, but his heart swelled as he realized that defeated look he hated so much was completely gone, and in its place was a fondness that Hinata could only describe as pure love. Almost instinctively, he gave three more squeezes back.

One, two, three.

_ I love you too.  _

And they needed no words to say it. 


End file.
